I Lost My Job For Poor Sales Hiring

There are reasons organizations need and want to ensure they get their sales hiring right. From the actual cost of the hiring mistake to the lost revenue from the new salesperson not making his/her sales quota, these costs add up. However, there is something that is deep down inside of every Sales Manager / Sales Director that either they are consciously aware of or it is a hidden thought deep in their subconscious. And the thought is…. I will lose my job for poor sales hiring.

This may sound a little over the top for a Sales Manager / Director to think this way but it is true. The ultimate ramification of getting the wrong hire(s) is being personally fired for the mistake(s). Now, getting fired may not be directly related to the wrong sales hiring but indirectly related to hiring salespeople who are not capable of making the sales numbers you promised in your forecast.

Many Sales Managers /Directors have been shocked when called into their boss’s office and provided their walking papers for bad sales hiring. If carefully analysed, this Sales Manager / Director can look back and count the number of salespeople he/she have hired or kept too long and connect the dots of the sales numbers missing their target and losing their job.

Hiring Managers, next time you are ready to hire your next salesperson, make sure you think of the ramifications of getting the hire wrong. It may be the inspiration to make you do your due diligence on the person you want to bring on-board.

Go play (hire) from another sandbox!

Next time you need to get in to sales hiring, you may want to think about moving out of your own sandbox go and play in another industries’ sandbox for awhile. Sales Managers today need to hire “sales stars” in their sales departments however; many of these sales managers are not able to succeed in hiring sales people. They are looking for the right person but their hiring sandbox is just too small. Hiring sales people is good; however, we encourage our clients to apply this hiring process in any position where they can’t afford to make a costly mistake. We continually see companies crying for one or two new sales people but they just can’t find them. Maybe these companies are looking in the wrong sandbox. Maybe they need to leave their “hiring mindset” and jump into a sandbox they have never played in before.

We have many clients who can attest to our hiring theory. One client in particular was desperate to hire a new “revenue generating” sales person, someone who could be the next spark in the team. Three years ago, this company hired a senior salesman who had run a company and been in other “none related” sales, but had no“industry experience” of the client’s marketplace. After following our “out of the sandbox” hiring theory, the client experienced results from this new hire that were astounding. This sales person, who could not even pronounce some of the product being sold in our clients market, outsold every other person in the department the first year and in the last two years has broken all records in the company’s history. Remember, this new sales person had never been in our clients business before.

There is more to the story. This client was like most companies today when we first meet them. They were adamant on hiring someone with “their industry” experience for this position. As the President said, “every salesperson we hire must come from our industry”. We asked the President if he had ever noticed that over the years his industry tradeshows had all the same salespeople attending the same shows but these sales people seem to be hired from one competitor to the next. You would see the same sales people but they would be behind a different booth every two to three years. The President agreed and even commented that he was amazed that some of the sales people in those booths should never be hired by any of his competitors.

As these words came out of his mouth he stopped and commented – “wait a minute, we may be doing the same thing. We may hire one of the sales people that our competitors wants to fire”. It was at this point we convinced him to go and play in someone else’s sandbox or industry and look for sales people who excel in selling outside his industry. Our hiring theory says you can teach a good sales person a new industry but you can’t teach a poor salesperson how to sell.

The Hiring Simulation Assessment system encourages and assists hiring teams to have a hiring process that allows you to assess and hire sales candidates that you would not have looked at in the past. The reason many hiring teams do not look outside of their industry is because they don’t know how to assess them. Hiring Simulation Assessments allow you to hire successfully!!

Remember, some of the best hires you will ever make are not playing in your sandbox today.

Test Drive Candidates

Let us show you how to see candidates in action before you hire them! Want to know more?

Craig Bissett is the President of Hire Results Ltd – the developers of the Hiring Simulation Assessment process. Allowing hiring teams to Test Drive candidates before they are hired.
Craig has been actively involved in the Human Capital marketplace since 1986. He has had roles as a General Manager and Partner with progressive Human Capital firms.
In 2002 Craig left his partnership to start Hire Results Ltd. Since then the company has worked with organizations throughout North America through its innovative Hiring Simulation Assessment process.
As the founder of Hire Results Ltd., I welcome the opportunity to assist and impact your organization through our Hiring Simulation Assessment process.

Hire Results helps organizations manage the risk when making a hiring decision. We are committed to assisting our clients in experiencing candidates in real life business settings before making a costly hiring decision. We value the deep relationships we have built with our clients. The Hiring Simulation Assessment process is owned and operated under the Hire Results Ltd organization.

Hire Results Ltd. specializes in Human Capital Assessment and Hiring, and is committed to reshaping the way organizations select key performers. .